Devices may use a variety of wireless protocols to communicate with one another, such as IEEE 801.11 (WiFi) or Bluetooth. For example, a wireless access point (WAP) may be wirelessly connected to devices such as smartphones, laptop computers, and the like, and may provide a connection between such devices and the Internet or other wired network to which the WAP is connected. However, depending on the particular devices, a user may need to have a certain amount of technical expertise to initially establish a connection between the devices.
For example, a WAP using IEEE 802.11 may be assigned one or more extended service set identifiers, or ESSIDs (sometimes referred to as SSIDs), each of which may be a sequence of numbers and/or letters that identifies that WAP to other devices, preferably uniquely. The WAP may broadcast one or more of its ESSIDs so as to alert other devices to the WAP's presence on the network. The WAP also may maintain one or more of its ESSIDs as a “hidden” or “cloaked” ESSID that the WAP does not broadcast. The WAP also may have one or more credentials, such as a login and password, or an encryption key, which may be associated with a particular one of the ESSIDs. The WAP may be programmed to permit devices to connect that (1) transmit the proper ESSID to the WAP, and (2) transmit the proper credential to the WAP.
Technically savvy users may readily be able to obtain the ESSID of a WAP and the proper credential, and to suitably configure a device to wirelessly transmit that ESSID and credential to the WAP so as to connect to the WAP. However, many users may lack such technical knowledge, and indeed may not know how to find the ESSID or credential needed to connect to a WAP, even in their own home, let alone how to configure their device appropriately. As such, some users may spend a great amount of time obtaining the needed information and learning how to appropriately configure their devices, while other users may place lengthy service calls to the WAP provider for assistance in connecting their device to the WAP, while still other users may decide that it is just too difficult to connect. In each case, the user's experience may be disappointing, costly, and time consuming.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method to facilitate communication between wireless access points and mobile devices.